Prime Minister Robert Fico has retained his job after the Opposition's attempt to dismiss him through a no-confidence motion in Parliament failed on Monday. Only 53 out of 133 MPs present voted for Fico's ouster at an extraordinary House session that began on Saturday evening and lasted for more than 49 hours.
Opposition parties sought Fico's ouster, claiming that his Government has established a system that fosters corruption and clientelism and is transforming Slovakia from a Western-style democracy into an oligarchy in which a select few are getting richer while most Slovaks are becoming poorer. Fico claimed that the Opposition has run out of ideas when it comes to reaching out to people, so it's resorting to election campaign theatrics such as the "absolutely unsubstantiated proposal" to dismiss him. In a speech that lasted almost an hour the Prime Minister reminded the Opposition of a string of scandals that emerged during the government of Iveta Radičová [2010-2012], which was essentially comprised from the current Opposition parties. Fico previously faced no-confidence motions over the issue of the ownership shares in the gas utility SPP in September 2013, and then five months later over the paucity of debate over the carbon-dioxide emission-quota scandal dating back as far as 2008 when Fico's first government was in power.
